The 1812 Constitution and the Indians of Nueva España and Perú

Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Journal of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
Volume 37
Issue 2 Special Issue: Global Horizons and Local
Interests in the Era of the Constitution of Cadiz
Article 5
2012
The 1812 Constitution and the Indians of Nueva
España and Perú
Claudia Guarisco
El Colegio Mexiquense, A.C., [email protected]
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The 1812 Constitution and the Indians of Nueva España and Perú 1
CLAUDIA GUARISCO
El Colegio Mexiquenses A.C.
In Spanish America, political citizenship arose from the crises in the Monarchy
that took place between 1808 and 1814. During this period, the French invasion of
the Iberian Peninsula created an opportunity for Liberals to replace the divine
justifications for power with the concept of national sovereignty. That idea soon
embodied itself in a government whose basis rested upon the Constitution of
1812, also called the Constitución de Cádiz. It was operative between 1812 and
1814, when Ferdinand VII got his throne back from the Bonaparte brothers. In
1820, the Ruler was obliged to put it in force again, lasting until the old
monarchic possessions gained independence. The National Charter placed
citizenship in the vicinity of the towns. At that time, the vecino or neighbor was
the male adult with job and known place of residence. The document also
established the legal equality and the wide participation of the society in public
affairs through representatives elected by means of the vote. Nevertheless, it
excluded Africans as well as women, and the electoral system involved
corporative vote and representation. In spite of its roots in the past, the
Constitution of Cádiz intended almost all social groups to act coordinately when
interacting with power. Until then, participation had been strongly limited and
parceled into watertight compartments. It is in this sense that early nineteenthcentury rules of political behavior meant a step towards modernity.
Under the constitutional monarchy, participation would take place in three
arenas: locally; in the ayuntamientos constitucionales or municipalities, on the
provincial level in the diputaciones provinciales, and nationally in the Cortes. It
was in the local level that Spanish American Indians encountered the constitution
and the new rules of citizenship.2 Municipalities were introduced as organizations
of neighbors that received the task of running some public services, maintaining
order and, eventually, exercising some basic judiciary functions. Scholars of
colonial Latin America have developed the topic in several ways. A major thesis
among them is that, with exceptions, Indians cooperated with other social groups
1
I’m grateful to the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies for the opportunity
of presenting a previous version of this text in its 2012 Conference (Tufts University, Medford,
Massachusetts), and to Christopher Schmidt-Nowara for his invitation to participate in this
publication.
2
Peter Guardino, The Time of Liberty: Popular Political Culture in Oaxaca, 1750/1850 (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2005), 143-44.
in setting up the new local self-governing organizations. They also find that the
native population was less concerned with political change than with the
preservation of the customs of the pueblos de indios or Indian towns.3, My article
analyzes the impact of tradition on both the constiution’s acceptance and its
rejection from a comparative point of view.
The first case study reflects the situation in the Indian towns of the
Intendancy of Lima that surrounded the viceregal capital of Peru. It comprised,
approximately, the current departamentos of Lima and Ica, with their several
coastal valleys and adjacent mountains. On the coast, the hacienda was an
important unit of production. The owners were a few high-ranking Spaniards;
black slaves provided the labor force. Mestizos and low ranking peninsulares as
well as pardos libres were present all over the area too, but more so in the valleys.
In general, Indians in the rural area of the Intendancy composed of a 43% of the
population. The rest were mestizos, low ranking Europeans and criollos, pardos
and slaves. However, in the highlands, around 95% of the population were
Indians.4 The second case treats the pueblos de indios of the Valley of Mexico, in
the intendencia of the same name, and Viceroyalty of New Spain. The hacienda
was also an important unit of production there, owned by creoles and with
seasonal mestizos and Indian workers. In this case, the population was almost
80% Indian.5
Between 1812-14 and 1820-21, around a hundred ayuntamientos were
established in the Valle de México. They were set up among the inhabitants of the
Indian parishes, which were the outcome of the sixteenth-century reduction
policies. To conform to the project of the reducciones, the aboriginal peoples
were obliged to leave their old territories and to relocate in Spanish style towns.
3
See, for example, Michael Thomas Ducey, “Elecciones, constituciones y ayuntamientos.
Participación popular en las elecciones de la tierra caliente veracruzana, 1813-1835,” in
Ayuntamientos y liberalismo gaditano en México, ed. Juan Ortiz Escamilla and José Antonio
Serrano (México: El Colegio de Michoacán, 2007),173-211; Karen D. Caplan, “The Legal
Revolution in Town Politics: Oaxaca and Yucatán, 1812-1825,” Hispanic American Historical
Review 83:2 (2003), 255-93; Jaime E. Rodríguez O., “Ciudadanos de la nación española: los
indígenas y las elecciones constitucionales en el Reino de Quito,” in, La mirada esquiva:
reflexiones históricas sobre la interacción del Estado y la ciudadanía en los Andes (Bolivia,
Ecuador y Perú), siglo XIX, ed. Marta Irurozqui Victoriano (Madrid: Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas, 2005), 41-64; Víctor Peralta, “Los inicios del sistema representativo
en Perú: ayuntamientos constitucionales y diputaciones provinciales, 1812-1815,” ibid., 65-92;
and Henri Favre, “El mundo andino en tiempos de Bolívar: los Asto entre 1780 y 1830,” Revista
del Museo Nacional 47 (1983), 259-271.
4
Hipólito Unanue, Guía política, eclesiástica y militar del Virreinato del Perú para el año de
1793 (Lima, COFIDE, facsimile, 1985), 72-76.
5
Charles Gibson, Los aztecas bajo el dominio español, 1519-1810 (México, Siglo XXI, 2000),
148.
1
Certain number of these settlements was put under the authority of a priest whose
task was to educate his parishioners in the Catholic faith, and in the Spanish
culture as well. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Indian parish was
composed of centers called cabeceras, and surrounded by several minor units
known as sujetos. One of the cabeceras was, at the same time, the cabecera
parroquial. These cabeceras were small political, economic and religious centers,
interconnected by roads. They also were linked to Mexico City by ground as well
as by a complex system of canals. The church and the local authorities were
placed there. The weekly tianguis or Indian market was also held there. In
addition, even though Royal Laws had forbidden it from sixteenth century
onwards, it was also there that mestizos and low ranking Spaniards used to live,
devoting themselves to commerce and crafts. A given number of parishes
constituted a partido under the authority of the subdelegado. And the intendancies
in charge of the intendentes comprised several partidos.
Each town of the parish had its own self-governing organization. It was
called the república or the cabildo de indios. It consisted of a governor in charge
of the town and as many mayors as required. For example, if the town was
composed of five sujetos besides the cabecera, there were six mayors. The
officials were appointed in an electoral process with no general participation. The
only ones with the right to vote were the principales. This group was composed of
past governors, caciques and old men, who voted annually for representatives
taking into account two things: first, that they had contributed to the management
of the cofradías or brotherhoods; second, that they had been generous, sharing
their wealth with the poor and supporting worship. The tasks carried out by the
officials of the república included the administration of justice in small matters
and the organization of the public works, such as that used for repair of the
church. They also had to collect the food and the wood that indígenas gave to the
royal troops when they passed through their pueblos. An additional task was the
collection of the Reales tributos, the tax that the conquered people owed to the
King.
The establishment of the ayuntamientos constitucionales in the parishes of
the Valle de México was carried out through quiet electoral processes. The
elections put mestizos and low ranking Spaniards in the positions of mayors and
Indians as councilors.6 Each one of these councilors represented, at the same time,
6
Actas electorales de Tacuba y Calpulualpa, 1820, Archivo General de la Nación, México
(AGNM), Ayuntamientos, vs. 128 y 154; Comunicación del ayuntamiento constitucional de
Tacuba, abril 28, 1821, AGNM, Operaciones de guerra, v. 393, f. 131; Comunicaciones del
subdelegado de Tacuba, mayo 7, 1813, julio 15, 1812 y octubre 1, 1811, AGNM, Operaciones de
guerra, v. 504, f. 95v, v. 505, ff. 22, 80v; Solicitud de Ezequiel Lizarza, sobre el cargo de
subdelegado de Tacuba, ¿1816?, AGNM, Subdelegados, v. 25, exp. 43, ff. 182-184. Padrones,
AGNM, P adro nes, 1792 , v. 14 , ff. 13 0 -191 .
2
the politically organized Indian town. Under the Constitution of Cadiz, the old
cabildos would disappear. However, they did not. They remained while also
becoming part of the new municipalities. This was possible because before the
elections, indígenas and non-indígenas got a kind of collective deal. They were
both willing to be part of the new political order but, at the same time, the former
wanted to keep their old ways of social and political organization. Therefore, they
agreed to concede the positions of mayors to Spaniards and mestizos while giving
the councillorships to their old governors. When the new laws did not leave much
room for all the gobernadores of the parish to be in office, the councillorships
were multiplied.7 On the other hand, non-Indians were discouraged from breaking
that order as far as they were a minority. Besides, towns with no more than two
hundred families had the chance to form a new ayuntamiento.8 That is why
mayors were willing not only to respect the deal, but justified their positions by
adopting the local ideal of leader, wherein they helped the poor and supported the
Church.
The reorganization of local power in the way just described made it
possible for indios to keep and expand their territorial control. From the sixteenth
century onward, the towns of the Valley had received certain amounts of land
from the Crown. They were of two types: tierras de comunidad, or communal
lands; and tierras de repartimiento or lands for distribution. The first ones were
rented to outsiders or worked collectively. When necessary, the money obtained
was used to help with the payment of the taxes owed to the King. It was also used
to feed the Indians when they repaired the buildings or bridges inside the parish,
as a part of the public services they used to give. Finally, the money obtained
from those lands was also used to pay the local teacher. On the other hand, the
tierras de repartimiento consisted in parcels each indio received to feed his
family.
Scholarship on colonial Latin American has stressed the fact that during
the last decades of the eighteenth century, the Bourbons tried to gain control over
the lands of the towns.9 It is assumed that during Habsburg rule, Indians were left
alone to use the lands as they saw fit. However, the eighteenth-century project
was not completely achieved, because certain amounts of land were successfully
kept away from the oversight of the royal administrators. It is not known exactly
how much it was. Resistance was achieved not through violent means, but
7
Expediente sobre la formación del ayuntamiento constitucional de San Juan Teotihuacán, 1813,
AGNM, Ayuntamientos, vol. 141, exp. 4.
8
Decreto CLXIII, de veintitrés de mayo de 1812, in Colección de decretos y órdenes que han
expedido las Cortes generales y extraordinarias desde 24 de septiembre de 1811 hasta 24 de
mayo de 1812 (Cádiz: Imprenta Nacional, 1813), 2:231-33.
9
Dorothy Tanck de Estrada, Pueblos de indios y educación en el México colonial, 1750-1821
(México: El Colegio de México, 1999), 17.
3
peaceful ones, such as the Espiritualización de los bienes de comunidad. In a time
when rules of property and possession were not clearly established, and local
archives were not very comprehensive, it was not too difficult for the indios to be
in possession of territories whose origins were known only to them. And when
questioned on the matter by the administrators, they answered that most of them
were not communal lands but tierras de cofradía or brotherhoods. Theoretically,
the control of these lands should have been the responsibility of the Church.
Nevertheless, it was not because most of these cofradías were spontaneous
associations set up independently from religious authority. Their only goal was to
pay for the worship and celebrations devoted to the saints of the towns. And
leading the process of Espiritualización were the governors.10 Once the
constitutional monarchy was established, municipalities were in charge of the
lands of the towns but under the supervision of the diputaciones provinciales that
replaced the intendancies. The diputación provincial in México, nevertheless, was
not strong enough to enforce the law. In this context, whether Indians were
willing to pay the new tax called canon for the repartimiento lands to the local
self-governing organizations, they refused to lose control over the tierras de
cofradía. Councilors actively defended this old custom.11
The experience of the indigenous people in the Intendencia de Lima
regarding the installation of liberal self-governing organizations was different
from their counterparts in New Spain. They refused to participate in the process.
In the Viceroyalty of Perú, the indios also lived in towns and parishes. Differently
from Colonial Mexico, each Indian parish had just one cabildo and not several.
Furthermore, the system of selection for office was not the vote of the principales,
but the sistema de turno or turn system. It meant that each year one adult Indian
male of the parish had an obligation to hold the position of mayor or councilor.12
As in Mexico, the Indians of Lima lived not alone in their parroquias, but with a
few mestizos and low ranking Spaniards, who were established, typically, in the
10
Los naturales del pueblo de San Bartolomé Naucalpan sobre que la Cofradía del Divinísmo de
su iglesia sea administrada precisamente por indios…, 1775, AGNM, Bienes Nacionales, leg.
230, exp. 5.
11
La Diputación provincial de Nueva España. Actas de sesiones, 1820-1821, prólogo, estudio
introductorio y sumario de Carlos Herrejón Peredo (México: Instituto de investigaciones Dr. José
María Luis Mora, 2007), 1:63, 83; Expediente hecho a pedimento del caballero teniente coronel
don Francisco Leguizamo como tesorero actual de las cofradías erectas en la iglesia parroquial
del pueblo de Tultitlán…, 1820, AGNM, Bienes Nacionales, leg. 225, exp. 3; Expediente formado
a pedimento de don Tomás de Santiago, actual mayordomo de la cofradía del Divinísimo Señor
Sacramentado, de la iglesia parroquial del pueblo de Ayapango…,1822, AGNM, Bienes
nacionales, leg. 1991, exp. 9.
12
Autos seguidos por don Isidro Vilca, procurador de naturales, en nombre de la comunidad de
San Juan de Ica …, 1799-1800, Archivo General de la Nación, Lima (AGNL), Superior gobierno
1, leg. 51, cua. 861, f. 5v.
4
cabeceras parroquiales, and in the nearby haciendas. They were small traders,
artisans and agriculture laborers.
The few surviving sources on the topic indicate that when the new rules
about local politics made their appearance, Indians decided to keep the old
structure of their cabildos, and renamed them as ayuntamientos constitucionales.
For example, in 1814, when Ferdinand VII abolished the Constitution, the mayor
of Matucana, Juan de Carlos Mata, ceased to be the “alcalde constitucional de la
banda de arriba,” and began to be referred as the “alcalde de la banda de arriba
por Su Majestad.”13 On a higher level, the Diputación provincial was never well
established in Lima, while the old subdelegados lost almost all their authority.
The situation was recognized very soon by the indios, who almost immediately
began a process of territorial expansion. They not only distributed the King’s
lands, which were available around the parishes, but administrated the tierras de
comunidad and cofradía freely.14
After having introduced the general trends of the process regarding the
different responses that Indians displayed in relation to the new rules of political
participation on the local level, the question that arises as to why were they so
different. As has been mentioned before, colonial Latin American historiography
has stressed the fact that when Indians were willing to accept or to reject the new
rules of political behavior, their reason for doing so was to maintain an identity
rooted in land. Nevertheless, the ethnic explanation fails to answer the question
why the collective self was in some cases preserved through cooperation, while in
others it was not. The nature of the indigenous political tradition may help to
solve the problem.
Recent developments in the theory of culture emphasize the cognitive
aspects that precede collective action. According to authors like J.M. Balkin, the
common thinking that people use in their everyday life is part of their culture.15
13
Expediente sobre el remate en arrendamiento del tambo del pueblo de Matucana…, 1814-1815,
AGNL, Juzgado de la caja general de censos, leg. 76, ff. 1-4.
14
Expediente sobre los bienes de comunidad del Partido de Cañete, 1810-1816, AGNL, Juzgado
de la caja general de censos, leg. 74, f. 5. Indians’ lack of enthusiasm about paying the Reales
tributos in 1813 despite the control they exerted over the tierras del pueblo, calls into question
Tristan Platt’s reciprocity thesis. Platt defends the existence of an Andean ethos according to
which the indios were willing to pay taxes as far as their access to land was guaranteed by the
Government. Platt, Tristan, Estado boliviano y ayllu andino: tierra y tributo en el norte de Potosí
(Lima, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1982). For the consultation made by the viceregal
authorities on paying the Tributo after it was abolished see, El Sr. Pomacagua, presidente interino
del Cusco, acusando recibo de lo resuelto en la Junta de Tribunales…, 1813, AGNL, Juzgado de
la caja general de censos, leg. 75, cua. 2
15
J. M. Balkin, Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1998).
5
From this perspective, the culture consists in not only a collection of values,
beliefs and representations (symbols, images), but also consists in the mental tools
that produce and modify them. Culture creates social action, and it does so
because of the sense of community that emerges from sharing some values,
visions of the world and ways of thinking. Among other things, that sense of
community makes possible the collective construction of unified responses
towards political innovation. That is why culture is powerful. Even though the
nature of cultural power is different from economic, military or technological
power, it is important as well because it is from the strength of comprehending the
world in the same way that people get the will to cooperate in the pursuit of a
goal. Social structures, before pushing human beings to act in some direction,
must be switched into meanings for action. And that transformation takes place in
the realm of culture.
On the other hand, an important source for cultural change is the past of
culture. That is, the adoption of new beliefs and ways of acting need the preexistence of somehow similar entities. The mechanism through which adoptions
are achieved is, basically, analogy. In the case of New Spain, there were several
elements that helped the partial appropriation of the new political institutions on
the local level. In contrast, in the case of the Viceroyalty of Peru there was
nothing in the cultural past of the Indians that could help them to understand the
new ways of participation in the government. In the Valley, indios not only knew
about but participated in local elections as well. Governors and mayors of the
cabildos were elected in ways that resembled the constitution’s indirect electoral
system. More important is the fact that they shared a tradition of participation in
local public affairs with their non-Indian neighbors. When facing the
establishment of the ayuntamientos they used those referents to adopt the new
rules of political behavior.
In the past, Mexican Indians had developed the custom to participate
alongside mestizos and humble Spaniards in the junta de comerciantes. It was a
kind of assembly organized in the cabecera parroquial, which was linked to the
tianguis or weekly market that took place there. During the tianguis, small traders
of all estates and castes had to pay a tax to the subdelegado. The tax was called
derecho de piso, and was paid in exchange for permission to set up tables, baskets
and awnings when selling fruits, grain and crafts. It is not clear how this tax was
used by the royal administrator. What is clear from the sources is that sometimes
the traders did not agree with the amounts of money demanded. Therefore, they
joined the juntas, choosing a representative and giving him the task to negotiate
with his superior what they considered the right amount of derechos.16 One
16
Pedimento de los comerciantes de Chalco…, 1786, AGNM, General de parte, vol. 67, exp. 77,
ff. 29-30; Documento sobre el oficio de síndico personero de la ciudad de Texcoco, 1774, AGNM,
6
important trait of the juntas was that Indians did not participate in them directly,
but through their governors. On the other hand, mestizos and Spaniards took part
in them as individuals. And it was precisely this institution that would allow the
coexistence of the cabildo and the ayuntamiento in the Valley during the
constitutional monarchy. In contrast, there was nothing similar in the Viceroyalty
of Peru. There were no institutions like the juntas that joined Indians and other
social groups. And that absence can be explained from the local markets. Even
though the indios from the Intendencia de Lima attended from time to time the
places of exchange located in the capital or in mining centers like Cerro de Pasco,
it seems it was not very often. Besides, locally, the tendency was to keep
exchange among the social group.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Indians of the Valley lived from
the lands given to them by the Crown. However, it did not mean that they were
autarchic. A part of their harvests was for feeding the peasant family. Another
part was reserved for exchange, with some chickens, pigs, turkeys and fish as
well. They also sold pulque, salt, wood, stone and some crafts. They used to carry
all this stuff to the markets of Mexico City, arriving there on foot or by boat,
using the canals that joined the countryside to the capital of the Viceroyalty. But
more important, the Indians of the parishes took part in the intense trade of the
cabeceras parroquiales. So important was the presence of Indians in trade that
during the last decades of the eighteenth century, the rulers contemplated the
possibility of canceling the Indians’ exemption in the payment of the alcabalas,
or exchange tax. Under the constitutional monarchy, that possibility turned into
reality. Then, the Reales tributos were abolished and in its place, the indios were
asked to pay the alcabalas.17
It was in the context of the tianguis that Indians, mestizos and Spaniards of
the Valley of Mexico developed a sense of local community, which in turn
allowed them to construct institutions like the junta de comerciantes. Without
those periodic and strong interactions, indigenous political culture would have
remained isolated. The commercial experience among the eighteenth-century
Indians of the Intendencia de Lima was very different from the Mexican one.
Instead of tianguis, they had tambos. The tambos were marketplaces located in
the cabeceras parroquiales, where not only native people but also passers-by and
members of the royal army could get things like bread, cheese, meat, wine and
General de parte, vol. 48, exp. 409, ff. 283-283v, 292v-293; Nombramiento de síndico personero
en el pueblo de Ixtlahuaca, 1795, AGNM, Ayuntamientos, vol. 141, exp. 3.
17
Superior oficio y ejemplar del bando acerca de una contribución temporal…, 1812, AGNM,
Real casa de moneda, vol. 439, exp. 22; Expediente sobre el establecimiento del cobro de la
alcabala…, 1817, AGNM, Alcabalas, vol. 70; Memoria de lo recaudado de derecho de alcabala
permanente y eventual en las plazas del pueblo de Papalotla…, 1817, AGNM, Archivo histórico
de hacienda, caja 2159.
7
cheap brandy. They were usually built by Indians on communal lands. Those who
ran the tambos were called tamberos, and the job was obtained through auctions.
The tambero was obliged to pay a rent, which was divided in the following way.
Certain amounts were given to the local priest for worship. Another portion was
given to the subdelegado, who used it to support Indians with the payment of the
Reales tributos. The rest was sent to the Caja general de censos, which was the
central office in charge of the administration of Indian lands and money.
According to the Law, there should be only one tambo in each parish, and nobody
but the tambero had the right to have an oven or to take bread from the city.
Those who violated the rule could have their goods taken away.
All Indians, mestizos, Spaniards and even free mulatos could participate in
the auctions for running the tambos. The only requirement was that they had the
economic capacity to stock it with all the necessary things. Indians should be
preferred in those auctions. If there were two or more Indians competing, then the
one who lived in the parish should be chosen. If there were two Indians living in
the parish, the one that was born there had more opportunities to be the next
tambero. The subdelegado was the royal official in charge of the auctions, but
when the outcome was not satisfactory, people could complain at the Superior
gobierno, whose authorities looked into the matter and if necessary, ordered a
new auction. Even though Indians had the right to hold tambos before nonIndians, the fact is that tamberos usually came from the latter group. Incomes
from those sales may have been important, since when the tambo could not be
gotten through legal ways, illegal stores were established.18
Sometimes non-Indian tamberos were legitimate from the point of view of
the indios but sometimes they were not, especially when they wanted one of them
to run the tambo, and for some reason it was not possible. On those occasions,
Indians participated in secret exchanges, selling and buying bread, alcohol and
other things among themselves. At the end of the eighteenth century that kind of
underground commerce seems to have been a real problem for royal authorities.
The sources repeatedly point to the fact that it was necessary to establish sheriffs
who employed physical force to stop the practice. In contrast to what happened in
the Valley, then, local commerce among the Indians of the Intendencia de Lima,
18
Expediente original iniciado por la Caja general de censos de indios y Alberto Chosop, a
nombre y en representación del común de indios de la Magdalena…, 1791-1815, AGNL, Juzgado
de la caja general de censos, leg. 58; Registro de indios, Lima, 1780-1781, AGNL, Protocolos
notariales, escribanía Francisco Húmac Minoyulle, leg. 733; Autos que promovieron José
Velázquez y Mariano Pizarro, alcaldes del pueblo de Santa Cruz de Late…, 1798, AGNL,
Campesinado, derecho indígena y encomiendas, leg. 29, cua. 545; Expediente sobre el remate en
arrendamiento del tambo del pueblo de Matucana…, 1814-1815, AGNL, Juzgado de la caja
general de censos, leg. 76.
8
was far from being favorable to the rise of common customs or to the softening of
ethnic frontiers. On the contrary, it did more to block them.
The independence movements that took place in Spanish America
reinforced the political developments in the Valley and Lima, which had begun
with the establishment of the constitutional monarchy. In the first case, revolution
favored the appropriation of citizenship, while in the second, it did not. The very
complex process of separation in New Spain began as a self-generated social
movement that slowly turned into a political one. By 1815, the rebellion initiated
by Father Hidalgo in the Bajío five years before had been undermined by Creoles
and Spaniards loyal to Spain. Nevertheless, a resistance movement lead by
Vicente Guerrero went on in the South. Meanwhile, Creole elites at the Cortes
proposed to be part of an autonomous entity, but strongly related to Spain.
Nevertheless, peninsular deputies, who were larger in number than them, rejected
that proposal. Spanish political lawmakers, even if liberal, still were imperialists.
As a consequence, in 1821 Agustín de Iturbide, a Creole officer of the Royalist
Army, gathered realists, insurgents, traders, entrepreneurs and members of the
largest municipalities into one strong coalition, and announced the separation
from Spain. After that, a constitutional monarchy with Iturbide as Chief of the
Executive was established. When he began to impose direct taxes and forced
loans among the people of the new country, Iturbide began to lose popularity.
Negative sentiments among the mexicanos grew when the Congress was
dismissed. Shortly after that, the Army officials took advantage of the situation.
Assisted by the regional elites of the diputaciones provinciales and the urban
ayuntamientos, they reinstalled the Congress elected in 1822 and created a Junta
nacional instituyente to call for elections. In the meantime, Iturbide was obliged
to abdicate. In November 7th of 1823, a General Congress was installed and its
members prepared the Constitution of 1824, by means of which Mexico emerged
as an independent, representative and federal republic.
During all the events summarized above, the Indians of the Valley of
Mexico were probably not loyal to the Spanish government or to Iturbide, but to
the local political order they had helped to build for almost three centuries. The
offensive coming from the Bajío helped to reinforce the open trait of their
political culture. It was the fear of the insurgent attacks that pushed the Indians,
mestizos and Spaniards of the parishes to adapt the old junta de comerciantes to
the new context of war. As a result, the junta de guerra was formed. These juntas
were the organizations that set the contributions that neighbors had to give in
order to establish and support the milicias cívicas. During the eighteenth century,
the Bourbons had tried to create them but were not successful. It was under the
pressure of the war that the goal was achieved. As the regular Army was not
enough to stop the insurgency, Viceroy Venegas ordered in 1811 the participation
9
of Spaniards, mestizos and Indians in the defense of the Kingdom. Most of the
time, the milicias defended just the parishes. In some cases they were recruited by
the subdelegados to give support to the Royal Army spread along the Intendencia
de México. The militias were organizations of status in which Spaniards of
various calidades exercised leadership. The troops were composed of mestizos
and Indians as well.
The participation of the vecinos in the juntas de guerra was carried out
according to the model provided by the old juntas de comerciantes. Indians
participated through their governors, while non-Indians acted by themselves. At
the head of the organization was the subdelegado. In those juntas, the vecinos de
la parroquia discussed the nature of their contributions. That is, if they would
give money or would serve in the militias. After making their decisions, they
appointed treasurers and sent letters to Mexico City, asking for veteran members
of the Royal Army to come to town and train the men who would be in charge of
the defending of the parish. The juntas were also organizations where the
subdelegados and the priests informed the vecinos about the political situation of
the Viceroyalty and the rest of the Iberian realms as well.19
The sources, then, show that the struggles for independence had a positive
effect in the Valley of Mexico, in terms of political knowledge. They stressed a
trend already present in Indians’ culture. According to this, apart of having their
own values, beliefs and representations, the indios shared some others with
mestizos and Spaniards of low rank. The defense against the attacks of the
insurgents led them to strengthen the practice of participating in decision-making
processes with non-Indians.
In the Viceroyalty of Peru, the story was very different. From 1820 to
1824, the territory of the old Intendencia de Lima was taken by the armies of José
de San Martín and then Simón Bolívar. In 1820, just when Viceroy Joaquin de la
Pezuela reestablished the Constitution of Cádiz, San Martín and his army arrived
in the Viceroyalty of Peru. In contrast to Bolívar, San Martín committed himself
19
Acta de la junta patriótica de Texcoco, 1815, Comunicación del subdelegado interino de
Texcoco, 1815, AGNM, Operaciones de guerra, vol. 821; Queja de los vecinos de la parroquia de
San Agustín de las Cuevas contra el comandante particular del pueblo, 1815. AGNM, Donativos
y préstamos, vol. 9, exp. 25, ff. 299-333; Jurisdicción de la villa de Coyoacán. Estado que
manifiesta el número de las familias españolas, castizas y mestizas…, 1792, AGNM, Padrones,
vol. 6/1, ff. 2-2v; Estado que manifiesta el número de plazas, armas de fuego y blancas…, 1813,
AGNM, Operaciones de guerra, vol. 504, f. 701v; Comunicación del capitán de realistas de la
parroquia de San Agustín de las Cuevas…, 1818, AGNM, Operaciones de guerra, vol. 818;
Comunicación del subdelegado de Tacuba, 1812, AGNM, Operaciones de guerra, vol. 505, f. 127;
Comunicación del subdelegado de Chalco, 1812, AGNM; Operaciones de guerra, vol. 1017, ff.
35-48; Causa reservada contra el subdelegado don Ramón María Villalba…, 1811, AGNM,
Subdelegados, vol. 50, exp. 9, f. 364.
10
to the organization of the territory and to the spread of the project of
independence. It was Bolívar, who a couple of years later would win the decisive
battles against the royalists. In doing his job, San Martín mixed the institutions of
the constitutional monarchy with those of old regime. He thought that in this way
he could achieve two goals. First, minimize the sources of conflict between the
people under his authority. Second, ensure a more or less constant flow of
resources from the parishes to the Ejército patriota. The result was successful as
far as there was a military force holding back the advancement of the royalist
troops and discouraging parishioners from cooperating with the viceregal
government. The arrival of Bolívar accentuated the repressive aspect of the wars
of independence in Lima.
San Martíin divided the Intendencia into two administrative areas: Lima
and Costa, and installed a president as the highest authority in each of them. In the
highlands, he decided to keep the old territorial divisions, and put governors in the
districts of Yauyos, Huarochirí, and Canta. Presidents in the Coast and Lima, and
governors in the highlands assumed the functions of the old intendentes. To
execute their tasks they had the help of middle rank authorities they chose. These
authorities took the name of gobernadores as well. The duties of these new
governors were the same as the ones of the old subdelegados, but their power in
most cases spread just over the old parish and not over the partido or distrito.
Among the Indians, the governors were old caciques that saw in the struggles for
independence a good opportunity to get back the power they had lost under the
Constitutional Monarchy.20 The most important task of the governors was to form
groups of cívicos, and raising contributions in money, and gifts in kind as well. To
accomplish their job, they had the help of the officials from the local selfgoverning organizations. Between 1820 and 1824, the old cabildos de indios
stayed as in the past, but under the new name of municipalidad. However, they
assumed a totally new function: recruiting Indians for the militias.21 In the past,
the indios had been exempt from military duties. The only way they participated
in affairs of war was by providing donkeys, food and help to the royal troops that
passed through their towns. In contrast, in the middle of the independence wars
20
Art. 2, sección quinta, “Estatuto provisional dado por el protector de la libertad del Perú para el
mejor régimen de los departamentos libres ínterin se establece la Constitución permanente del
Estado,
8
de
octubre
de
1821”.
<http://www.congreso.gob.pe/ntley/Imagenes/LeyesXIX/1821005.pdf>. Primera Sala. Cuaderno
segundo corriente de los seguidos contra el gobernador de Chilca…, 1825, Archivo de la
Biblioteca Nacional, Lima (ABN), D5959, f. 38; Comunicación del comandante general y
gobernador de la provincia de Huarochirí…, 1822, Archivo Histórico Militar, Lima (AHM), leg.
33, núm. 47.
21
Primera sala. Cuaderno segundo corriente de los seguidos contra el gobernador de
Chilca…,1825, ABN, D5949, f. 8v.
11
they formed part of the montoneras, lead by their governors. The montoneras of
Yauyos and Huarochirí, for example, were very famous at that time. However,
they do not seem to have been spontaneous organizations. They were subjected to
the authority of caciques such as Don Ignacio Ninavilca, who were governors
under the orders of higher authorities in charge of many parishes. As has already
been mentioned, these higher authorities were not called presidents, as they were
on the Coast, but just governors. For example, Tadeo Tellez in Yauyos was
neither an Indian nor a cacique, but he had a deep knowledge of the indigenous
world. He selected his governors from among the native nobility, gave them guns,
and went with them to the pueblos to talk about the project of independence.
When he considered it convenient, Tellez armed the montoneras. Besides, he
made the local priests his personal allies, giving them the task of spreading the
idea of national sovereignty among the people. Priesthood was in general partial
to the patriotic project. It was due, in part, to the process of Purificación, which
began as soon as San Martín arrived in Lima. That process consisted of taking the
rural priests to the City of Lima to indoctrinate them.22 Even though well
conceived, the montoneras lacked stability. They relied on the personal interests
of the caciques and the alliances they could establish with the Indians because of
their new military powers. On the other hand, the link between caciques
gobernadores and higher authorities was also problematic due to the constant
insubordination of the caciques, who wanted to seize the office of their
superiors.23
In short, what this article has attempted to show is that the Indians of the
Spanish territories in the Americas addressed in different ways the political
changes brought about by the crisis of the Spanish Monarchy. The path followed
in each case was, up to a certain point, determined by the past of the culture. In
the Mexican case, the Indians were in general much more prone to cooperate with
mestizos and Spaniards in the establishment of self-governing organizations. And
they did so because they had in their memory some customs and values which
showed compatibility with the new ways of participation on the local level. That
cooperation was also possible as far as they could adapt the new rules to their
tradition. Appropriation and adaptation provided the convenient space to keep
safe their territorial interests and the life-style built on it over centuries. In the
Peruvian case, on the contrary, Indians’ culture did not have the looking glass in
which new institutions could have reflected themselves, even if only in a distorted
way. And more important, they did not share any sense of community in which
22
Comunicación del gobernador político y militar de Yauyos…,1822, AHM, leg. 35, núm. 82;
Comunicación de José de Rojas…, 1823, AHM, leg. 3, núm. 10; Comunicación del gobernador
del Arzobispado de Lima…, 1821, AHM, leg. 4, núm. 10.
23
Comunicación del gobernador político y militar de Huarochirí…, 1822, AHM, leg. 17, núm. 49.
12
those rules could have been rooted for the first time. In both cases legal unity
failed to integrate Indian and non-Indian political behavior. However, in colonial
México legal unity persisted, unlike in Peru. In the Viceroyalty of New Spain,
tradition and law coexisted in the same local political space.
In the origins of the different developments experienced in Lima and the
Valley of Mexico was local trade. It was in the generalized and periodic
commercial interactions that people in the New Spain could create a common
cultural horizon. Trade was part of Mesoamerican civilization that existed prior to
the arrival of the Spaniards. After the conquest, it was adapted to colonial society.
It was in the buying and selling of oranges or baskets that the indios became
familiar with other social groups, and led them to the construction of common
political institutions. In contrast, the Indians of the Intendencia de Lima did not
have the opportunity to build a dense and fluid web of relationships with mestizos,
pardos and Spaniards. Furthermore, the royal institutions with their closed
markets did not help. Commerce held at the tambos, instead of joining different
groups in a mutual interest, divided them. Without interaction, neither sense of
local community nor common local institutions could emerge. The struggles for
independence increased the breadth of these social gaps.
13